FORT JACKSON, S.C. (Feb. 19, 2015) -- Kinley Johnston has speech issues that she grapples with daily. A third-grade student at C.C. Pinckney Elementary School, Johnston was born with a chromosomal disorder that doctors expected would leave her permanently disabled. Her parents were warned that they'd be able to take very little for granted in their daughter's development.
But her parents said the child has defied many of these predictions.
"(Doctors) told me she'd never walk when she was born," said her mother, Jennifer. "She started to walk when she was 2 1/2, and now I watch her play soccer."
Kinley didn't begin to speak until she was 4 years old, and her vocabulary was limited to only a few words. When she began to use complete sentences, her speech was further impaired by stuttering, a problem that continues today.
"With all of the techniques and work she does, she continues to improve," said her father, Capt. Jared Johnston, an operations officer with 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment. "I don't know if it's something that will ever go away, but she'll always struggle with it."
"She has a chromosome disorder, so everything that she does is delayed," Jennifer said. "She also does occupational therapy, speech therapy and physical therapy. She's a very hard worker."
Later this year, Kinley will have a letter published in the newsletter for The Stuttering Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides free resources, services and support to those who stutter and their families.
"Kinley, to me, is a wonderful example of bravery," said Kerrie Ammons, a speech and language pathologist for C.C. Pinckney Elementary School. "Each time I get The Stuttering Foundation newsletter, I share the writing with my students in speech therapy. Kinley said -- out of the blue -- 'Dr. Ammons, I want to write a letter.'"
Ammons told Kinley she was welcome to write a letter to The Stuttering Foundation, but that she shouldn't expect it to be published.
"Her response to me was, 'You never know if you don't try,'" she said. Ammons has been a speech and language pathologist for 15 years, a third of which has been spent at C.C. Pinckney. This is the first time she's seen a student's letter published in the newsletter, she said.
Kinley's letter addresses Easy Onset strategies that she's been using in her speech therapy lessons:
Hi! My name is Kinley and I am 9 years old! I am in the third grade and I attend elementary school on the Army installation of Fort Jackson, located in South Carolina. Sometimes, I stutter and people do not always understand me! My speech therapist, Dr. Ammons, helps me! She taught me a strategy known as 'Easy Onset". We made an "Easy Onset" checklist that I keep on my desk to help me remember to:
1. stop/cancel a stuttering moment;
2. think about the word I want to say;
3. breathe;
4. say the word on the air coming out - air first then word.
I like my visual checklist and I like me!
"She thought those (tips) were helpful, and wanted to share those with the nation," Ammons said. "She also drew a visual checklist she uses to help her remember some of the steps for Easy Onset."
Kinley said she had other goals for writing the letter that were a little more self-serving.
"I wanted to be famous," she said, adding that she wants to be a singer when she grows up.
"And I want to take care of children," she said.
The letter will appear in the fall edition of The Stuttering Foundation newsletter.
"Kinley has made phenomenal gains," said her homeroom teacher, Evetta Johnson. "She's gained so much confidence. That's a testimony to (Capt.) and Mrs. Johnston, too, because they've been so supportive. Kinley is a testimony of what can happen when the home and school work together."
The school's speech program is embedded with comprehension and reading skills taught in a regular classroom, Johnson said. The idea is to have one curriculum for her, and not divide her time learning conflicting -- or contradictory -- strategies.
"We expect our children to succeed," said C.C. Pinckney Principal Annie Crandle. "(Ammons and Johnson) have shown they've got compassion and care to see our children succeed and go that extra mile."
Social Sharing